Ten Republican-led states sued Thursday to block President Biden’s executive order that would require agencies to calculate the social cost of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide when enacting regulations.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry led nine other states in filing the lawsuit, and said the president’s move will cost American jobs and burden the public.
“With the stroke of his pen — Joe Biden is bypassing our elected representatives to impose the Left’s radical, self-defeating green agenda on the American economy and people,” he said. “This ‘social cost’ overreach revives an Obama-era scheme that unnecessarily forces the monetary cost of a global issue on American governments, businesses, and families.”
The states argue that the sweeping executive action covers “topics as diverse as vending machines, dishwashers, dehumidifiers, microwave ovens, residential water heaters, residential refrigerators and freezers, fluorescent lamps, residential clothes dryers, room air conditioners, residential furnaces, residential air conditioners, and battery chargers, just to name a few.”
“In other words, federal agencies must now use the […] estimates to calculate regulatory costs and benefits for virtually everything that states and their citizens encounter every day,” said the complaint filed in federal court in Louisiana.
Wyoming, Texas, West Virginia, Mississippi, South Dakota, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Kentucky were the other states bringing the legal challenge, which was filed as Mr. Biden hosted a two-day virtual climate change conference with 40 other world leaders.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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